Chocolate chip muffins

 

Melting chocolate in warm muffins is just unbeatable!

Last night I was craving chocolate chip muffins. You know, those moist muffins with melted chocolate pieces inside that will make you gain 5 kg only by looking at them. Well, I had many of those during my time at Brown (which may in part explain the superfluous kg around my waist) and I loved them. I really did. So I went on an expedition to try and (re-)create those viciously delicious muffins.

I compiled 4 recipes and took the best out of each one, significantly increasing the amount of chocolate and of baking soda (to make them fluffier and "lighter" lol). Nothing complicated about the recipe: you take two bowls, mix dry and wet ingredients separately before mixing them together, add chocolate and divide into muffin forms. Bake them for 20 min and voilà! Within 40 min you could enjoy one of those chocolate muffins straight out of the oven :-D

Recipe for 12 muffins

300 g flour
140 g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
100 g melted butter (or canola oil)
1 dl cream
1 dl milk
200 g bittersweet chocolate

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl whisk wet ingredients together. Mix both together only until roughly incorporated. Add half of chocolate chips to dough and mix roughly. Divide half of dough into muffin cups / pan. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on the divided dough. Add the second half of the dough in the muff forms and sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top. Bake in the oven 20 min at 200C.

Carrot cake, so moist and so satisfying...

Today is Valentine's day, the day to share with people you love. Well I think it is especially the day to share the food you love with your beloved ones. So of course I baked one of my favorite cakes: the moist and very satisfying carrot cake with cream cheese frosting :-D

This recipe is very easy to follow and the only difficult task is shredding those 500 g of carrots. I decided to coat the cake with cream cheese frosting but it is equally delicious without (and you still get to decorate it with marzipan carrots!).

This cake was also an occasion to celebrate my first 1st-author publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal! And last but equally important, today is the 1st-year anniversary of Laura's Gourmandises!!! So many things to celebrate clearly called for a cake and this carrot cake made for a great Gourmandise on this 14th of February 2014.

Recipe for a 35cm long carrot cake

500 g carrots, shredded
250 g ground almonds
4 eggs
1 pack baking powder (15g)
350 g flour (5 dl)
300 g sugar (3 dl)
200 g melted butter / oil
zest + juice of a lemon
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom

Cream cheese frosting (optional)


113 g cream cheese (philadelphia)
60 g butter, room T
4.8 dl powder sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
marzipan carrots (for decoration)

Beat up eggs + sugar until white. Add fat (I do 1/2 butter 1/2 oil) and mix. Mix flour, baking powder and spices, add to batter and mix. Add carrots, almonds, and lemon and mix. Transfer to a buttered and floured cake pan, bake in the oven 60 min at 180C. Unmold and let the cake cool.

Beat up cream cheese and butter together in a bowl. Add powder sugar and mix into a soft shiny frosting. Spread on top of the carrot cake and decorate with marzipan carrots. Let the frosting dry a bit and then enjoy this wonderfully moist cake :-D

Zucchini-mozzarella pie for lunch

The other day I wanted to prepare a warm dish for dinner and the following lunch but I had nothing interesting to cook in my fridge. I found some zucchini, and I also had eggs and mozzarella. So I thought, why not bake a zucchini-mozzarella pie :-) ?

I based my recipe on my previous pie and quiche recipes, with a shortcrust dough and a egg-cream-milk batter. Zucchini made the pie into something very decorative and the mozzarella brought some color and crisp to the zucchini. Very easy to prepare, and you can enjoy this pie both cold and warm! Enjoy!

Recipe for a big zucchini-mozzarella pie

Shortcrust dough

140 g cold butter
240 g flour
1 tsp salt
1 dl cold water

Filling

2 zucchini
1-2 mozzarella
2 eggs
1 dl cream
1 dl milk

Prepare the dough as described before and refrigerate 30 min. Roll it out on a floured table and transfer to a buttered and floured pie pan. Prick it with a fork and bake in the oven 7-8 min at 220 C.
Slice the zucchini in thin slices and dispose them nicely on the pre-baked dough (if you want lots of mozzarella you can add a thin layer under the zucchini). Mix milk and cream and add eggs one by one, mix with a fork. Add salt and pepper and pour the batter onto the pie. Finally sprinkle crumbs/thin slices of mozzarella on the pie and bake 25-30 min at 220 C.
Serve cold or warm, it makes for a perfect lunch!